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Sandbag Season Has Fargo Thinking of a Better Way

More than 14 miles of permanent levees have been built in Fargo, N.D., seen flooded in 2010.Credit
M. Spencer Green/Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. — Just last fall, the reservoirs and rivers here in the Red River Valley were so low from drought that Mayor Dennis R. Walaker of Fargo was concerned that the faucets and shower heads in his city would run dry.

Now, Fargo residents are bracing for water that is expected to come rushing over those once-parched riverbanks.

If normal weather patterns hold, said Gregory Gust of the National Weather Service, the Red River — which runs past Fargo and divides North Dakota and Minnesota — is expected to rise to at least 38.1 feet, which would cause the fifth-worst flood ever recorded here. The record was set just four years ago when the river crested at 40.84 feet and cost the city of Fargo between $40 million and $50 million.

“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t tell you I lose some sleep over things like this,” said Joel Livingood, the general manager of the Oxbow Country Club, an 18-hole golf course in Oxbow, N.D., a town of 350 people just south of Fargo.

Photo

The Red River at Fargo, N.D., has flooded three of the past four years.

During the 2009 flood, Mr. Livingood said, the course looked like a lake. The floods of 2010 and 2011, though less severe, also swamped the greens, causing the country club to shut down for months. The region was spared flooding last year, and the club had one of its best seasons ever, Mr. Livingood said, with growing membership and a record number of rounds played.

Now the outlook is grim again.

The region’s drought lasted for a year before it broke in October, Mr. Gust said. But since Oct. 1, the rain and snow have been above normal. When overnight temperatures stay above freezing — which they are expected to do as early as next week — the melting ice and snow will dump too much water into the Red River, which currently sits around 14 feet. The river will unquestionably get to 30 feet, Mr. Gust said, and that leads to major flooding. Whether it reaches the 2009 levels will depend on how quickly the snow melts.

With sandbagging, Mr. Livingood said, his golf course could be saved if the river crests at 33 feet. But if the water rises to 36 feet, he said, the greens and fairways will be drowned again, and the club could lose 10 percent to 20 percent in revenue.

“It’s tough to have that constant battle every year, and that constant worry,” he said.

The people here have yearned for years for permanent protection to alleviate the back-straining and uncertainty of sandbagging and erecting clay dikes. There is some hope on that front.

Since 2009, more than 14 miles of permanent levees have been built in Fargo, and the city has bought and razed houses in flood-prone areas. Plans are under way to build a $1.8 billion system that will funnel the rising waters around the city through 35 miles of channels.

The state has set aside $75 million for the project, with an additional $102 million proposed in the governor’s budget. Cass County and Fargo, which is its largest city, have increased sales taxes to generate more than $200 million for the diversion. Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota, said he hoped that the Senate would authorize the project by next month and that it would pass in the House by the end of the year. Local officials anticipate beginning construction next year, and they estimate it will take about eight and a half years to build.

For Mayor Dennis R. Walaker of Fargo, at left with North Dakota's governor, Jack Dalrymple, drought was a pressing concern just a few months ago.Credit
Michael Vosburg/The Forum, via Associated Press

The almost-yearly floods have fed the sense of urgency that a permanent barrier is needed. A flood in 1997 devastated Grand Forks, N.D., about an hour north of here, but that city is now fortified by a series of flood walls. In a way, Fargo has been so successful in its makeshift defenses that it took a stretch like the recent series of floods to get people fed up.

The diversion system calls for a staging area near Oxbow that will be flooded for several days before the water is released into the channels. A dike will circle Oxbow and the surrounding towns in hopes of protecting them.

Mike Bice, who owns a bar in nearby Hickson, said the staging area would divert floodwaters to high ground that does not usually flood. The diversion would be more effective if the water were routed farther north, Mr. Bice said, but he believed that Fargo officials were reluctant to do that because they wanted to preserve that land for development.

But Mayor Jim Nyhof of Oxbow, a supporter of the diversion project, said that the staging area does get some flooding, and that taking in more water there would be worth it in exchange for a permanent dike.

Some residents of the 42-home Oak Creek neighborhood in Fargo are angry about the city’s attempt to buy about a dozen properties there to build a dike. The city has approved the construction of million-dollar homes there in recent years, said Gary Cavett, who lives in Oak Creek, and razing part of the neighborhood, he added, could depress home values and cost the city millions in property tax revenue. Mr. Cavett, 65, said the city could preserve the homes and still build a dike with some reinforcements to the banks of a neighborhood creek.

The city is trying to buy the home that Mr. Cavett and his wife built about 20 years ago, but he said the offer was only about half of what it would cost to rebuild a similar house elsewhere in Fargo. The home’s sentimental value is contributing to his resistance.

“We don’t like the flood; we don’t like sandbagging, it’s extremely stressful,” Mr. Cavett said. But, he later added: “We just like living here. They say you shouldn’t become that attached to your home, but it’s our home. We’ve become attached to it.”

A version of this article appears in print on April 3, 2013, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Sandbag Season Has Fargo Thinking of a Better Way. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe